Return to home Al-Razi, a medieval Arab alchemist, authored
"The Secret of Secrets, a compendium of medieval Islamic science.
(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A17)
19k-15kBCE During this period a
Semitic group of nomads migrated from Sumer to Canaan and then on to
Egypt. They were led by a caravan trader, the Patriarch Abraham, who
became the father of the nation of Israel. Ishmael was a son of
Abraham had by Hagar. Isaac was a son of Abraham by Sarah. Hebrews
trace their lineage through Isaac, Arabs through Ishmael.
(eawc, p.3)(NW, 11/02, p.55)

c500-600 Arabs brought backed home from India the
numerals we refer to as Arabic numbers.
(SFEC, 1/23/00, Z1 p.2)

570 Jan 19, Mohammed (d.632),
"The Prophet", Islamic founder (Koran), was born into the Quraysh
tribe in Makkah. He was orphaned at an early age and found work in a
trade caravan. He married a wealthy widow and this gave him the
freedom to visit Mount Hira each year to think. His birthday is
observed on the 12th day of Rabi ul'Awwal, the 3rd month of the
lunar calendar, in a festival known as Mawlid-al-Nabi.
(ATC, p.59)(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/15/01,
p.A16)(MC, 1/19/02)

610 Apr 6, Lailat-ul Qadar: The
night that the Koran descended to Earth. Muhammad is believed by his
followers to have had a vision of Gabriel. The angel told him to
recite in the name of God. Other visions are supposed to have
Gabriel lead Muhammad to heaven to meet God, and to Jerusalem to
meet Abraham, Moses and Jesus. These visions convinced Mohammad that
he was a messenger of God.
(ATC, p.59)(MC, 4/6/02)

610-632 A Muslim tradition has it that Mohammed
one day found that his favorite wife, Aisha, had purchased some
cushions decorated with birds and animals. The prophet proclaimed
that only God could bestow life and that pale imitations should be
avoided. Thus the hadith, or tradition of the prophet, holds that:
The house which contains pictures will not be entered by the
angels."
(WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A12)
610-632 During Mohammed's ministry in Mecca and
Medina the definition of jihad moved from persuasive proselytism to
Muslim war against all infidels.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)

624 Muslims engaged
non-believers for the 1st time at the Battle of Badr.
(www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=128)

630 Mohammad raised an army of
10,000 and took over Mecca (Makkah). He immediately set out to
destroy all the idols at Kaaba. The black stone remained embedded in
the corner. The area around became the first mosque, or Muslim house
of worship. Mohammad returned from Medina and began the Islamic
conquest of Arabia.
(ATC, p.60)(WSJ, 11/15/01, p.A16)

632 Jun 8,
Mohammed, the founder of Islam and unifier of Arabia, died. His
companions compiled his words and deeds in a work called the Sunna.
Here are contained the rules for Islam. The most basic are The Five
Pillars of Islam. These are: 1) profession of faith 2) daily prayer
3) giving alms 4) ritual fast during Ramadan 5) Hajj, the pilgrimage
to Mecca. The Sunna also calls for “jihad." The term means struggle,
i.e. to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil.
Four contenders stood out to
succeed Mohammad. They were Abu Bakr, his trusted father-in-law.
Umar and Uthman, long-time friends and advisers, and Ali, a cousin
and blood relative. Ali was Mohammad’s son-in-law and the father of
Mohammad’s grandsons. Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph i.e. successor.
(ATC, p.60,63)(HN, 6/8/98)(SFC, 12/15/98,
p.A7)(AP, 6/8/03)
Iqra, which means read in
Arabic, was reportedly the first word that the archangel Gabriel
spoke to Mohammed.
(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)
In 2001 Minou Reeves,
Iranian-born scholar, authored “Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years
of Western Myth-Making "
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A15)

633CE Muhammad's chief clerk
collected Mohammad's revelations into one work called the Koran
(Quran). Loosely translated it means "recitation." "Whoever
witnesses the crescent of the month, he must fast the month."
(Koran, al Baqarah 2:185) Ramadan begins the day after the crescent
of the new moon is sighted and confirmed by 2 witnesses. Muslims
must abstain from food and sex during daylight hours for a month to
celebrate the revelation of the Koran to Mohammed. The later Sunnah
holy text reported the sayings and deeds of Muhammad. The Muslim
beard tradition is from the Sunnah.
(ATC, p.60)(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/01,
p.A14)

633CE Gen Khalid ibn al-Walid
sent a letter to the Persian emperor that said: "Submit to our
authority and we shall leave you and your land and go against
others. If not, you will be conquered against your will by men who
love death as you love life."
(WSJ, 10/19/01, p.W19)

634 Aug 22, Abu Bekr Abd Allah
(61), [al-Siddik], successor of Mohammed, died. He was a friend, an
Arabic merchant, Mohammed’s father-in-law and the first Caliph.
Before his death he appointed Mohammed's adviser Omar (Umar) as his
successor.
(ATC, p.66)(PC, 1992, p.61)

635CE Damascus was captured by
the Muslims.
(ATC, p.78)

636 Jul 23, Arabs gained
control of most of Palestine from Byzantine Empire.
(MC, 7/23/02)

636 Aug 15, At the Battle at
Yarmuk, east of the Sea of Galilee, Islamic forces beat a Byzantine
army and gained control of Syria.
(PC, 1992, p.61)

640CE The Muslim government
began minting coins about this time.
(ATC, p.83)

0642 Sep 17, Arabs conquered
Alexandria and destroyed the great library. Omar, the second caliph,
successor of Mohammed, conquered Alexandria, then the capital of
world scholarship.
(V.D.-H.K.p.103)(MC, 9/17/01)

0642 Sep 17, Arabs conquered
Alexandria and destroyed the great library. Omar, the second caliph,
successor of Mohammed, conquered Alexandria, then the capital of
world scholarship.
(V.D.-H.K.p.103)(MC, 9/17/01)

644CE Nov 4, Umar of Arabia,
the 2nd Caliph of Islam, was assassinated at Medina and was
succeeded as caliph by Uthman. On his deathbed Umar named a council
to choose the next caliph. The council appointed Uthman. Uthman
continued to expand the Muslim empire. [see Dec 8]
(ATC, p.67)(HN, 11/4/98)(MC, 11/4/01)

656CE Uthman appointed members
of his own family as regional governors and caused bitter jealousy
among other families. This caused an angry mob of 500 to murder him.
This gave Ali an opportunity to claim power. Some claim that Ali
plotted Uthman's murder. Civil war broke out. Muawija, Uthman's
cousin and governor of Syria, challenged Ali's right to rule. Ali
prepared for war but was murdered by an angry former supporter. The
followers of Ali became known as Shiites from the Arabic meaning
"the party of Ali." Those who believe that the election of the first
three caliphs was valid and who claim to follow the Sunna reject the
Shiite idea of the Imam, and are called the Sunnis.
(ATC, p.67-68)

c656CE The Imam Ali mosque in Najaf marks the
grave of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed and a central figure in
Shiite Islam.
(SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)

661CE Muawija became caliph. He
moved the capital from Medina to Damascus. His followers were called
the Umayyads. Muawija was one of the soldiers who helped capture
Damascus and for 25 years he had served as governor of Syria.
Muawija began the practice of appointing his own son as the next
caliph, and so the Umayyads ruled for the next 90 years. Muslim
forces expanded into North Africa and completely conquered Persia.
The Islamic Empire continued to expand into Afghanistan and
Pakistan. After the Omayyad Caliphs conquered Damascus, they built
the palace at Qasr Al-Kharaneh (in Jordan) as a recreational lodge.
(ATC, p.67,78)(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.9)

676CE Cairo was built by the Arabs only 1300
years ago. The name comes from the Egyptian "El Qahir," the name of
the planet Mars.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.165)(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1
p.2)

680 Oct 10, Hussein, grandson
of prophet Mohammed, was beheaded. He was killed by rival Muslim
forces on the Karbala plain in modern day Iraq. He then became a
saint to Shiite Muslims. Traditionalists and radical guerrillas
alike commemorate his martyrdom as the ceremony of Ashoura. The
10-day mourning period during the holy month of Muharram
commemorates the deaths of Caliph Ali's male relatives by Sunnis
from Iraq.
(SFC, 5/28/96, p.A8)(MC, 10/10/01)(SFC, 3/16/02,
p.A14)

685-705CE Abd al Malik, Umayyad caliph, influenced
the shaping of Islamic culture. He declared Arabic as the official
language of the empire and established a common coinage system that
was purely Arabic. They had no images but were inscribed with
quotations from the Koran.
(ATC, p.83)

688CE North Africa was
conquered by the Muslims under Abd al Malik.
(ATC, p.83)

691 The Dome of the Rock mosque
in Jerusalem was built. It contained inscriptions that later were
held as the 1st evidence of the Koran.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A15)

c700 Abd al Malik issued the
first pure Islamic coins.
(ATC, p.83)

705 Oct 8, Abd al-Malik, caliph
of Damascus, died.
(MC, 10/8/01)

711CE The Umayyads with the
help of the Berbers in North Africa moved across the Strait of
Gibraltar and began the conquest of Spain and Portugal. The Berber
leader Tarik crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began the Muslim
conquest of Spain. The word Gibraltar comes from the term
Jabal-al-Tarik, which means the hill of Tarik. Gebel-al-Tarik means
"Rock of Tarik."
(ATC, p.79)(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.170)(SFEC,
9/29/96, zone 1 p.2)

732 Oct 10, At Tours, France,
Charles Martel killed Yemenite general Abd el-Rahman and halted the
Muslim invasion of Europe. Islam's westward spread was stopped by
the Franks at the Battle of Tours (also known as the Battle of
Poitiers).
(http://tinyurl.com/o1uj)(HN,10/10/98)

737 Marwan, an Arab general,
captured the Khazar khagan and forced him to pledge support to the
Caliphate and convert to Islam.
(TJOK, pages 162-163)

c750 Arab immigrants settled
upstream from Soba, the capital of Alwa, and developed a strong new
state called Funj.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.170)

750-1258CE Muslim power in Persia was held by the
Abbassid family headed by al Abbas. One Abbasid general, Abdullah,
invited 80 Umayyad leaders to a banquet where they were killed by
Abdullah's men. Only one Umayyad, Abd al Rahman, was able to escape.
He fled all the way to Spain where he united the warring Muslin
groups there and built a new Umayyad government. So now the Muslims
were split in two groups. The Abbassid dynasty of the Moslem Empire
ruled Arabia and the eastern empire. All of the caliphs of this era
claim descended from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed.
(AHD, 1971, p.2)(ATC, p.84)

751CE During a raid into
central Asia, the Abbasids captured some Chinese artisans skilled in
paper making.
(ATC, p.89)

752CE Abu Jafar al Mansur, the
second Abbasid caliph, moved the capital to Baghdad.
(ATC, p.85)

756CE May 15, Abd-al-Rahman was
proclaimed the emir of Cordoba, Spain. Abd al Rahman united the
Umayyad forces in Spain and made the ancient Roman city of Cordoba
his new capital.
(ATC, p.95)(HN, 5/15/98)

786CE Abd al Rahman began
construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It was under
construction for 200 years.
(ATC, p.95)

c800-900 The Alawi faith was founded in the 9th
century by a Muslim, who declared himself the "gateway" to the
divine truth and abandoned Islam.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)
800-900 Buran, the wife of the Caliph of Baghdad,
had a lavish wedding. The groom was led to a carpet of woven gold
and 1,000 pearls were poured over his head in honor of a poet who
had described the surface of a glass of white wine as: "pearls
scattered like pebbles on a plain of gold."
(SFC, 12/18/96, zz-1 p.8)
800-900 Muhammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi, Arab
mathematician and astronomer, wrote his "ab al-jabr w' al muqabalah"
(the science of reduction and comparison). The work dealt with
solving equations. It was the first time that algebra was discussed
as a separate branch of mathematics. In the 12th century it was
translated into Latin as "Ludus algebrae et almucgrabalaeque."
(Alg, 1990, p.87)
800-900 Jaber bin Hayyan, an Iraqi polymath,
elaborated on algebra (al-jabr) and described "flammable vapours" at
the mouths of heated wine vessels.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)

910 Rhazes, an Arab physician,
wrote the 1st account of smallpox and proposed the earliest theory
of immunity.
(NW, 10/14/02, p.46)

912-961 Abd al Rahman III, Umayyad caliph in
Spain, purchased Scandinavian, African and German slaves to serve in
his forces. At this time Cordoba was western Europe's largest city
with a population of 200,000 people.
(ATC, p.96)

922 Mansur al-Hallaj (b.858), a
Sufi mystic, was crucified in Baghdad for pronouncing in the midst
of a trance that he was the truth, i.e god.
(SFC, 4/21/04, p.A10)(
http://www.uga.edu/islam/sufismearly.html#Hallaj)

938-1002 Al-Mansur (the Conqueror), Moorish
leader. He was born Abu'Amir al-Ma'asiri and rose to power by wooing
the caliph's favorite concubine. He raided Christian Spain and
hauled his booty back to Cordoba and built a palace called Madinat
al-Zahira, the Shining City.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4,6)

962-1030 An Islamic era in Afghanistan was
established with the Ghaznavid Dynasty.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)

962-1140 Under the Ghaznavid Dynasty Afghanistan
became the center of Islamic power and civilization.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)

964AD Arab astronomers
described the Great Nebula in Andromeda, our closest galaxy.
(V.D.-H.K.p.333)

969 Named El Qahira -"the
victorious," Cairo gained power from its position beside the Nile.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.603)
969 By this time the Fatimids
had conquered most of North Africa and claimed Cairo as their
capital.
(ATC, p.91)

976 Oct 1, Al-Hakam II, the
caliph of Cordoba, died.
(MC, 10/1/01)

976 The Great Mosque of Cordoba
(Spain) was completed and served as a religious, social and
educational center. The largest of the 70 libraries in Cordoba
contained 500,000 volumes. 70,000 books a year were hand-copied to
satisfy the citizen's literary appetites.
(ATC, p.95,98)

980-1037 Avicenna (Ibn Sina, Afghan scientist),
the Muslim philosopher-scientist, was born in Bukhara (Balkh). He
wrote "The Book of Healing," a vast philosophical and scientific
encyclopedia, and "The Canon of Medicine," an encyclopedia of the
medical knowledge of his time. Both works were translated to Latin
and exerted great influence on Scholastics in the West.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(V.D.-H.K.p.115)

1147 Oct 25, At the Battle at
Doryleum Arabs beat Konrad III's crusaders. Conrad III of Germany
and Louis VII of France had assembled 500,000 men for the 2nd
Crusade. Most of the men were lost to starvation, disease and battle
wounds.
(PCh, 1992, p.94)(MC, 10/25/01)

1325-1355 Ibn Battuta, a Muslim, left his home in
Tangier to journey to Mecca. He traveled in Arabia, Asia, Africa,
and Spain and recorded many exciting adventures.
(ATC, p.13)

1331 Ibn Battuta, Arab traveler
and scholar, visited Kilwa. He described Kilwa as "one of the most
beautiful and well-constructed towns in the world."
(ATC, p.143)

1332 May 27, Ibn Khaldun
(d.1406), Arab historian, was born in Tunis. He was also a social
scientist and political activist and developed theories on economics
and politics. He authored the "Muqaddimah" (introduction to
history), that gave an in-depth analysis of the cyclical nature of
the rise, maturation and decline of political regimes and economies.
(HN, 5/27/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R20)

1340 Nov 28, In the Battle of
Salado, Spain, the last Moor invasion was driven back.
(MC, 11/28/01)

1352 Ibn Battuta decided to
cross the Sahara Desert. The journey took two months to complete the
1,200 miles.
(ATC, p.112)

1353 Ibn Battuta spent a few
months in Mali and left a full description of his experiences.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.170)

1396 Sep 25, The last great
Christian crusade, led jointly by John the Fearless of Nevers and
King Sigismund of Hungary, ended in disaster at the hands of Sultan
Bajazet I's Ottoman army at Nicopolis.
(HN, 9/25/98)

1400s The Saud dynasty was
founded near Riyadh.
(WSJ, 11/13/01, p.A14)

1492 Jan 2, Boabdil, the leader
of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces
loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. Sultan Muhammad XI
surrendered, ending Muslin rule in Spain. The combined Catholic
forces of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile drove out the
last of the Berbers from Spain. The Moors were expelled. King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella took the town of Grenada, the last
Moslem kingdom in Spain. The event became marked by an annual
festival that began around 1516.
(ATC, p.73,100)(AP, 1/2/98)(SFEC, 3/22/98,
p.T11)(HN, 1/2/99)(WSJ, 1/2/02, p.A6)(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C20)

1515-1519 Coffee from Arabia appeared in Europe.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)

1516 Aug 24, At the Battle of
Marjdabik, north of Aleppo, the Turks beat Syria. Suliman I, the
Ottoman Sultan, routed the Mamelukes (Egypt) with the support of
artillery capturing Aleppo and Damascus.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.11)(PC, 1992, p.169)

1518 Algiers and Tunis, Barbary
states in North Africa, were founded.
(TL-MB, p.11)

1521 Nov 20, Arabs attributed a
shortage of water in Jerusalem to Jews making wine.
(MC, 11/20/01)

1703 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
(d.1792), Islamic theologian and founder of Wahhabism, was born in
Arabia. He set out his ideas in “The Book of Unity" (1736).
Wahhabism, a puritan branch of Sunni Islam, was founded by al-Wahhab
in a poor part of Arabia called Najd. Saudi armies helped to spread
Wahhabi Islamic reform. [see 1744]
(SSFC, 10/14/01, p.A18)(WSJ, 11/13/01,
p.A14)(www.concise.britannica.com)

1710 Muhammad Ibn Saud was born
in Arabia.
(NW, 11/26/01, p.SAS)

1722 Oct 12, Shah Sultan Husayn
surrendered the Persian capital of Isfahan to Afghan rebels after a
seven month siege. Mir Wais' son, Mir Mahmud of Afghanistan, had
invaded Persia and occupied Isfahan. At the same time, the Durranis
revolted, and terminated the Persian occupation of Herat.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(HN, 10/12/98)

1728 The French Count de
Boulainvilliers wrote a life of Muhammad that described him as "an
enlightened and wise lawgiver."
(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A15)

1744 In Arabia Muhammad Ibn
Saud, local ruler of Ad-Dar'ia forged a political and family
alliance with Muslim scholar and reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al
Wahhab.
(NW, 11/26/01, p.SAS)

1773 Riyadh fell to Abdul Aziz.
(NW, 11/26/01, p.SAS)

1792 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
(b.1793), conservative Islamic theologian, died. He founded
Wahhabism and set out his ideas in “The Book of Unity" (1736). In
2004 Natana J. Delong-Bas authored “Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and
Reform to Global Jihad."
(www.concise.britannica.com)(WSJ, 7/20/04, p.D8)

1930 Ali Ahmed Said, poet later
known as Adonis, was born in Syria. He became a naturalized Lebanese
citizen in 1960. His work included the 1970's poem "The Funeral of
New York," and the book "Transformations of the Lover" (1984).
(SSFC, 9/30/01, DB p.63)

1947 Arab students, influenced
by national socialist movements in Europe, founded the Baath Party.
Satia al-Husri, father of Ba'athism, was a disciple of German
philosopher Johann Fichte.
(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/8/03, p.D4)

1948 Dec 8, Jordan annexed
Arabic Palestine. The old city of East Jerusalem came under
Jordanian control until 1968. Transjordan was given to a client Arab
family, the Hashenites (led by King Hussein's grandfather), and was
run out of Mecca by the Saudis.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(WSJ, 4/9/97, p.A14)(MC,
12/8/01)

1949 Dec 9, UN took trusteeship
over Jerusalem.
(HN, 12/9/98)

1949 Dec, The UN Relief and
Works Agency (UNRWA) was established to serve Palestinian Arabs.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A10)

1950 The Muslim Tablighi
Ijtimah (Congregation of Preaching) movement was founded in India.
They believed Islam should be spread by setting a good example, one
of modesty and non-violence.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.A7)

1951 Jul 20, Jordan's King
Abdullah Ibn Hussein was assassinated in Jerusalem by a
Palestinian extremist. Prince Hussein (15) witnessed the murder.
Talal became king with the assassination of his father, Abdullah
ibn-Hussein, who ruled when Jordan was a British mandate.
(AP, 7/20/97)(HN, 7/20/98)(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)(MC, 7/20/02)

1958 Feb 14, The Arab
Federation of Iraq and Jordan formed under Iraq's Faisal II. King
Hussein forged a federation with Iraq, which was led by his cousin,
Faisal II. The federation failed when Faisal was killed during a
revolution in Iraq.
(HNQ, 8/20/00)(MC, 2/14/02)

1958 Jul 14, Gen. Abdul Karim
al-Kassem assassinated Faisal II with his son and premier. Karim
proclaimed a republic and Jordan's Col. Saddam Hussein succeeded
Faisal as head of state. Faisal II, Hashemite King of Iraq
(1939-58), was assassinated at Baghdad and Noeri el-Said, premier of
Iraq, was murdered. Mohammed Hadid (d.1999 at 92) served as the
first finance minister under the government of Abdel Karim Qassem.
(PCh, 1992, p.963)(SFC, 5/27/97, p.A22)(AP,
7/14/97)(USAT, 3/24/99, p.18A) (SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)(MC, 7/14/02)

1963 Mar, In Syria the Baath
party stage a coup. Hafez Assad played an important role.
(WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)

1963 Iraq renounced its claim
laid to Kuwait.
(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A9)

1963 There was an Army-led coup
in Iraq. The Arab Baath Socialist Party pulled off the coup and
ruled Iraq for 9 months.
(HNQ, 6/20/99)(SFC, 8/6/99, p.D4)

1964 Jan 17, The PLO charter
was put together with articles that proclaimed Israel an illegal
state and pledged "the elimination of Zionism in Palestine." The PLO
was founded in Egypt.
(SFC, 12/11/98, p.A18)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)

1970 Sep 6, Palestinian
guerrillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP-GC) seized control of three jetliners which were later blown
up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews were
evacuated. This triggered a civil war in and the expulsion of
Palestinians from Jordan.
(SFC, 12/13/96, p.B4)(AP, 9/6/97)

1970 The PFLP-GC planted a time
bomb on a Swissair jet that blew up on a flight from Zurich to Tel
Aviv. All 47 aboard were killed.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)

1970s The Islamic Jihad was
founded in Egypt by Palestinian students from the Gaza Strip. Nafez
Azzam was one of the founders. Control was later moved to Iran with
training and funding from Iran, Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Leaders included Ramadan Shalah and Abdullah Shami.
(SFC, 6/6/02, p.A12)
1970s The Takfir wal Hijra
ideology was developed in Egypt by Ahmed Mustaph Chawqui. The
theorists openly advocated using immigration as a Trojan horse to
expand jihad (holy war).
(WSJ, 3/29/04, p.A16)

1974 Oct 30, An Arab summit in
Rabat, Jordon, decided that King Hussein would no longer speak for
the Palestinians and named the PLO under Yasir Arafat as the sole,
legitimate representative.
(SFC, 2/6/99,
p.A13)(www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1967to1991_rabat_1974.php)

1976 Jun 16, U.S. Ambassador
Francis E. Meloy, Jr. was murdered along with his associate Robert
Waring, an American economic advisor. The two had been en route to a
meeting with Lebanese president-elect Elias Sarkis when they were
abducted by Muslim guerillas in Beirut.
(MC, 6/16/02)

1976 Dec 25, 100 Moslems,
returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, died when their boat, the
Egyptian SS Patria, sank in the Red Sea.
(HN, 12/25/98)(MC, 12/25/01)

1977 Mar 9, About a dozen armed
Hanafi Muslims invaded three buildings in Washington D.C., killing
one person and taking more than 130 hostages. The siege ended two
days later.
(AP, 3/9/98)

1979 Saddam Hussein executed
some 500 rival party leaders. This was most of the leadership of the
Baathist Party. Said Aburish, author of "A Brutal Friendship: The
West and the Arab Elite Against the Arab People," was quoted on the
execution in 2002. Aburish also later authored a biography of
Hussein.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/03, p.A1)

1979 Osama bin Laden left Saudi
Arabia to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, where he laid
the groundwork for his al Qaeda network.
(NW, 11/19/01, p.35)

1980 Feb 2, Reports surfaced
that the FBI had conducted a sting operation targeting members of
Congress using phony Arab businessmen in what became known as
"Abscam," a codename protested by Arab-Americans.
(AP, 2/2/00)

1980 Fouad Ajami, published
"The Arab Predicament," and established his reputation as an astute
observer of modern Arab societies. He pointed to the 2 pivotal
problems of modern Arabs: their encounter with western modernity,
and their relationship with Israel.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.D4)

1980s Ayman Al-Zawahri fled
from Egypt after he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for belonging
to an outlawed group. He later met Osama bin Laden and became the
"emir" of the Islamic Jihad.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)

1981 Oct 6, Egyptian Pres.
Anwar Sadat was killed by Islambouli, an Islamic fundamentalist
(Takfir wal Hijra) and Egyptian army lieutenant, at the parade
ground of Nasser City during a ceremony commemorating the Egyptian
crossing of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
Although authorities were warned of a death plot hours earlier, the
information did not get to the president in time. He was succeeded
by Vice President Hosni Mubarak. The events are described in a book
by Fouad Allam: "The Brotherhood and I." In 2000 Mohammad Khan
produced the film "Days of Sadat," starring Ahmed Zaki.
(HFA, '96, p.40) (TMC, 1994, p.1981)(SFC,
4/26/96, p.A-12)(HNQ, 7/12/98)(HN, 10/6/98)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)(WSJ,
3/29/04, p.A16)

1986 May 15, In Sudan Francis
Bok was kidnapped when Arabs from a government-armed militia swept
into his village shooting the men and cutting off their heads with
swords.
(WSJ, 5/23/02, p.A1)

1986 Osama bin Laden began
building a tunnel complex under mountains in Afghanistan near
Pakistan as part of a CIA-funded project.
(SSFC, 5/9/04, p.M6)

1987 Aug 25, Saudi Arabia
denounced Iran's government as a "group of terrorists," and said its
forces would deal firmly with any Iranian attempts to attack the
Saudis' Muslim holy places or vast oil fields.
(AP, 8/25/97)

1987 Dec 8, The "intifadah"
(Arabic for uprising) by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied
territories of the West Bank and Gaza began.
(AP 12/8/97)(SFC, 4/24/98, p.A17)

1988 Apr 16, Abu Jihad, [Khalil
al-Wazzir], PLO-leader, was murdered. The Palestine Liberation
Organization accused Israel of assassinating al-Wazir, a top PLO
military figure, in Tunisia. Palestinians reacted angrily, and at
least 14 were shot and killed by Israeli troops during clashes in
the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.
(AP, 4/16/98)(MC, 4/16/02)

1988 Hamas published a
manifesto calling for a holy war to create an Islamic state from the
Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, including Israel. It
challenged the PLO's claim as the sole representative of the
Palestinian people.
(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)

1992 Harkat-ul Jihadi-e-Islami
(HUJEI) was formed with funds from al-Qaeda with the goal of
creating an Islamic state in Bangladesh.
(SFC, 2/15/02, p.A20)

1992 In Yemen 2 hotel bombs
directed at US servicemen killed 2 Australians. The bombing was
later linked to Osama bin Laden, the scion of a wealthy Saudi
family. He was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994.
(SFC, 8/14/96, p.A10,12)

1993 Mar 24, Mahmoud
Abouhalima, a cab driver implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing, was flown back to the United States from Egypt. Abouhalima
was later convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/24/03)

1993 Sep 14, Israel and Jordan
signed a framework for negotiations, a day after the signing of a
PLO-Israeli peace accord.
(AP, 9/14/03)

1993 Nov 25, Egyptian Prime
Minister Atef Sedki escaped an attempt on his life when Islamic
militants detonated a car bomb near his motorcade. The attack killed
a 5-year-old girl. Yasser al-Siri, a member of the "media committee"
of the Islamic Jihad, was tried and convicted in absentia for the
assassination attempt. Siri fled to the UK and obtained political
asylum.
(HN, 11/25/98)(WSJ, 10/26/01, p.A19)

1993 Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri
became head of the Egyptian Jihad.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A1)

1993 Osama Bin Laden was
suspected of supplying weapons to Somalia to shoot down American
helicopters.
(SFC, 8/17/98, p.A12)

1993 Muhammad Atef, a top Osama
bin Laden lieutenant, and 6 other al Qaeda operatives, set up
training camps in Somalia to help Somali tribes oppose a UN
peacekeeping operation.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A13)

1994 Sep 15, An Arab Charter on
Human Rights was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab
States.
(www.al-bab.com/arab/docs/international/hr1994.htm)

1994 The family of Osama bin
Laden disowned him. The Binladin Group later invested with the
Washington-based Carlyle Group, which also employed George Bush Sr.
(NW, 11/19/01, p.35)

1995 Jan 9, In New York, trials
began for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 11 other defendants accused of
conspiring to wage a holy war against the United States. Nine were
convicted of seditious conspiracy, and two reached plea agreements
with the government.
(AP, 1/9/00)

1996 Jun 25, At least 23
Americans were killed at a US base near Dhahran. another 105
suffered serious injuries from a truck bomb estimated at 5,000
pounds at the Khobar Towers apartment complex adjacent to King Abdul
Aziz Air Base. About 5,000 US troops served in Saudi Arabia. US,
French and British aircraft resumed flying 100 missions per day over
southern Iraq from Saudi Arabia. In 1997 intelligence information
tied a senior Iranian intelligence officer to Hani Abd Rahim Sayegh,
a man who fled Saudi Arabia shortly after the bombing. In 1999 the
US threatened was set to deport Hani al-Sayegh to Saudi Arabia.
Sayegh feared torture and asked for US asylum. Sayegh was deported
Oct 10. In 2000 Ahmad Behbahani told a 60 Minutes journalist from a
refugee camp in Turkey that he proposed the Pan Am operation and
coordinated the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.
In 2001 13 Saudis and one Lebanese man were indicted for the bombing
that killed 19 American airmen and wounded nearly 400 others.
(USAT, 6/26/96, p.1A)(WP. 6/29/96, p.A22)(SFEC,
4/13/97, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/5/99, p.A10)(SFC, 10/12/99, p.C16)(SFC,
6/5/00, p.A9)(SFC, 6/22/01, p.A1)
1996 re: Jun 25, Later reports
said that Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi billionaire, bankrolled
the bombing of the US base that killed 19 US servicemen. He was an
advocate of strict Islamic rule and had said that he would campaign
to overthrow the Saudi royal family. He had lived in the Sudan for 5
1/2 years and recently moved to Afghanistan and was accepted by the
Taliban. In 1998 a senior Saudi official absolved Iran of any
involvement in the bombing. In 2000 it was reported that the Bin
Laden family firm was awarded the contract to rebuild the Khobar
Towers.
(SFC, 3/7/97, p.A17)(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A12)(SFEC,
8/23/98, p.A15)(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A12)

1996 Dec 1, Dr. Ayman
al-Zawahri, head of the Egyptian Jihad, crossed into Russia on his
way to Chechnya as a possible base of operations. He was soon
arrested by Russian police in Dagestan.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)

1996 Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, an al
Qaeda insider, defected to the US and began to describe the extent
of Osama bin Laden's terrorist plans.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A14)

1996 A plot to bomb the US
Embassy in Asuncion, Paraguay, was broken up. It was planned by
Marwan al Safadi, a Lebanese national, in revenge for the arrest of
Omar Abdel Rahman.
(WSJ, 11/16/01, p.A10)

1997 May 24, In Afghanistan
forces of the Taliban swept into Mazar-E-Sharif, the last opposition
stronghold.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.A10)

1997 May, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri,
head of the Egyptian Jihad, was released from a Russian jail. He had
attempted to get to Chechnya and was arrested in Dagestan and held
for 6 months.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A1)

1997 Dec 11, The 55-member
Organization of the Islamic conference ended their meeting in Iran
with the declaration that "the killing of innocents is strictly
forbidden in Islam." The group also called for full respect for the
dignity and rights of Muslim women and criticized Israel for "state
terrorism."
(SFC,12/12/97, p.B2)

1997 Mohamad Kamal Mustafa,
imam of Fuengirola, Spain, authored “Women in Islam," in which he
defended a husband’s right to beat his wife.
(WPR, 3/04, p.11)

1998 Jan 9, Ramzi Yousef was
sentenced in New York to life in prison for the 1994 bombing of a
Philippines airliner and 240 years for masterminding the 1993
bombing of the World Trade Center.
(WSJ, 1/4/98, p.R4)

1998 Feb 23, Osama bin Laden
declared a holy war on the US. The Al Quds Al-Arabi newspaper
published a statement that announced an alliance between Dr.
Zawahri, head of the Egyptian Jihad, and Osama bin Laden. "We—with
God's help—call on every Muslim…to comply with God's order to kill
Americans."
(WSJ, 4/2/02, p.A18)(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)

1998 Jun 25, Albanian security
personnel (SHIK) under CIA guidance arrested Shawki Salama Attiya, a
Tirana cell forger. Over the next 2 months they made a successful
raids on more suspected members of the Egyptian Jihad terrorist
organization. The suspected terrorists were turned over to
anti-terrorist officials in Egypt, where they delivered forced
confessions following torture.
(SFC, 8/13/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A1)

1998 Aug 4, The Egyptian Jihad
under Dr. Zawahri denounced the CIA-led arrests in Albania and said
Americans should soon receive a response "in the only language that
they understand."
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)

1998 Aug 7, Two powerful bombs
exploded at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania. At least 147 [244,247] people were killed and over 4,800
were injured. 11 [12] of the dead were Americans. In Nairobi at
least 53 buildings were damaged. The adjacent Ufundi Cooperative
House was demolished and the 22-story Cooperative Bank House had all
its windows shattered. Haroun Fazil of the Comoros Islands was later
the 3rd bombing suspect to be charged in the Kenya bombing. In 2001
Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al-'Owhali (24) of Saudi Arabia, Khalfan Khamis
Mohamed (27) of Tanzania, Wadi El-Hage (40) of Texas, and Mohamed
Sadeek Odeh (36) of Jordan were convicted on 302 counts.
(SFC, 8/8/98, p.A1)(SFEC, 8/9/98, p.A1)(WSJ,
9/18/98, p.A1)(AP, 8/7/99)(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A13)
1998 Aug 7, In 2000 Ali
Mohamed, a former US Army sergeant, pleaded guilty for his role in
the bombing under the direction of Osama bin Laden.
(SFC, 10/21/00, p.A1)(SFC, 9/21/01, p.A1)
1998 Aug 7, In Nairobi
Catherine Bwire (25) was one of 25 people blinded by the bombing.
She was pregnant and gave birth to a daughter on Oct 27.
(SFC, 11/25/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 7, In Pakistan Sadik
Howaida (34), later named as Mohammed Saddiq Odeh, was detained at
the Karachi airport. He reportedly confessed to participating in the
bombing in Nairobi. He said that he and 2 coconspirators had left
Nairobi and planned to enter Afghanistan a few days before the
bombing. He acknowledged that the team was recruited and financed by
Osama bin Laden who was ensconced in a fortress-style hideout in
Kandahar. Odeh later refused to admit responsibility to American
officials.
(SFEC, 8/16/98, p.A17)(SFC, 8/17/98,
p.12,17)(SFC, 8/18/98, p.A6)

1998 Aug 8, The Taliban overran
Mazar-i-Sharif and killed 9 of 11 diplomats from Iran. 8 of the dead
were diplomats, the 9th was a journalist. Later reports indicated
that the Taliban killed as many as 4,000 civilians, mostly Hazaras,
in a campaign partly designed to wipe out the Shiite Muslim
minority.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D4)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.D8)(SFC,
2/19/01, p.A9)

1998 Fouad Ajami, published
"The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey," a sequel to
his 1980 book but more concerned with Arab literature.
(SFC, 5/12/98, p.D4)

1998 An Egyptian militant,
believed to be Ahmed Nasrallah, reported to Yemen’s Political
Security Organization on al Qaeda terrorists around the Marib
region. The security service tipped off the terrorists.
(WSJ, 12/20/02, p.A1,6)

1998 Samih Toukan founded
Maktoob in Amman, Jordan, a software firm dedicated to replacing
English with Arabic in e-mail systems. Maktoob.com was the world’s
1st Arab language Web site. In 2000 the firm received a $2.5 million
cash injection from an Egyptian investment bank.
(SFC, 9/9/00, p.A14)(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.C1)

1999 Mar 27, This was the 1st
day of the Muslim feast day Id al-Lahma, feast of meat, or Id
al-Adha, feast of sacrifice.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A7)

1999 May 19, Ali A. Mohamed, a
former US Army sergeant, was indicted for conspiring with Osama bin
Laden to kill Americans abroad.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A2)

1999 Jul 11, In London 2
Egyptian associates of Osama bin Laden were arrested. The
fingerprints of Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous (42) and Adel
Abdel-Meguid Abdel-Bary (39) were found on statements taking
responsibility for the attacks against US embassies in Africa last
August.
(SFC, 7/13/99, p.A8)

1999 Ayman Al-Zawahri, "emir"
of the Islamic Jihad, was sentenced to death in absentia by an
Egyptian military court for organizing an insurgency against the
government.
(SFC, 2/22/00, p.A8)

1999 Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri
stepped down as head of the Egyptian Jihad. He was replaced by
Tharwat Salah Shehata, who wanted to focus on the struggle in Egypt.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)

1999 In Egypt defendants
reported during the trial of 107 suspected terrorists that agents of
Osama bin Laden had purchased dangerous biological agents through
the mail for as little as $3,865."
(SSFC, 10/21/01, p.A20)

1999 Saudi police arrested
Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal and jailed him for 14 months for maintaining
contact with Osama bin Laden. He was then deported to Yemen.
(SFC, 11/26/03, p.A10)

2000 Jan, There was a meeting
of terrorists in Kuala Lumpur. The US CIA informed the FBI that
Khalid Al-Midhar had a US visa. Midhar was later one of the Sep 11,
2001, terrorists.
(SFC, 6/4/02, p.A10)

2000 Feb, In Egypt Ahmed Osman
Saleh and Ahmed Ibrahim al-Naggar, members of the Egyptian Jihad,
were hanged for their connections to terrorist cases. They had been
pulled out of Albania in 1998 by Albanian Security (SHIK) working
with the CIA.
(WSJ, 11/20/01, p.A10)

2000 Nov, Metin Kaplan was
sentenced in Germany for operating a terrorist organization. His
group had planned to bomb Ataturk's mausoleum in Ankara with an
airplane packed with explosives on Turkey's 75th anniversary.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A9)

2000 Oct 20, Egyptian-born Ali
Mohamed, a U.S. citizen who'd served in the Army (1986), pleaded
guilty in New York to helping plan the deadly U.S. Embassy bombings
in Africa in 1998 that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans. It
was later reported that Mohamed, a former Egyptian Army major, had
served as an FBI informant.
(AP, 10/20/01)(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A1)

2000 Tharwat Salah Shehata gave
up as head of the Egyptian Jihad and Dr. Zawahri resumed control.
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)

2001 Mar 28, In Jordan an Arab
summit convened. Delegates had already approved a draft resolution
for the UN to allow Baghdad to fund the Palestinian uprising.
(WSJ, 3/27/01, p.A17)

2001 May 19, The Arab League
called on Arab governments to sever political contacts with Israel
until the Jewish state ended military action against Palestinians.
(AP, 5/19/02)

2001 Jun, The Egyptian Jihad
and al Qaeda drafted "Statement No. 1" under the new name Qaeda-al
Jihad Group: "Islam's enemies will soon roast in the same flames
that they now play with."
(WSJ, 7/2/02, p.A8)

2001 Jul 5, An FBI agent in
Phoenix wrote to bureau headquarters that al Qaeda could be sending
terrorists to train as student pilots. He urged the investigation of
Middle Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A19)

2001 Jul 28, Samir Ait Mohamed
(32) was detained in Vancouver on immigration charges. On Nov 15 he
was arrested on US charges for plotting to bomb the Los Angeles
airport during millennium festivities.
(SFC, 11/17/01, p.A10)
2001 Jul 28, Jamal Beghal (36),
a French-Algerian, was arrested in Dubai, UAR, with a false French
passport while traveling to Europe from Afghanistan. He was
extradited to France in Sep 30. He told police of a plans to bomb
the US Embassy in Paris on orders from Abu Zubaydah, a top bin Laden
lieutenant.
(WSJ, 10/3/01, p.A18)(SFC, 10/23/01, p.A5)

2001 Aug 1, In Indonesia Taufik
Abdul Halim, a member of the Malaysian Mujahedeen Group, blew off
his lower right leg at a Jakarta shopping mall when a bomb he
carried exploded prematurely. Halim was linked to Dedi Setiono
(Abbas), who was linked to Hambali (Riduan Isamuddin), operations
leader of Jemaah Islamiah.
(SSFC, 3/3/02, p.A16)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A14)

2001 Aug 16, Zacarias Moussaoui
(33), a French citizen of Moroccan descent, was arrested in
Minneapolis on immigration charges. He was taking lessons on flying
Boeing jets with no interest in taking off or landing. He was later
suspected as a 5th member of one of the Sep 11 WTC attack teams. In
Nov the FBI reported that Moussaoui wanted to learn how to take off
and land but not to fly. Mueller also said Ramzi Omar of Yemen, aka
Ramsi Binalshibh, may have been the 20th hijacker.
(SFC, 11/8/01, p.A7)(SFC, 11/15/01, p.A12)(WSJ,
2/4/02, p.A1)

2001 Aug 21, The CIA placed
Khalid Al-Midhar and Nawaf Alhazmi under suspicion as part of the
investigation in the bombing of the destroyer Cole in Yemen. The 2
were among the hijackers who commandeered the jet that hit the
Pentagon on Sep 11.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A19)

2001 Sep 1, The US issued a 34
cent stamp featuring Arabic calligraphy that says "Eid Mubarek," a
greeting used to celebrate the 2 holiest Islamic holidays, Aid
al-Fitr for the end of Ramadan fasting, and Eid al-Adha for the end
of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.A8)

2001 Sep 9, In the UAR Mustafa
Ahmed al Hissawi, an associate of Osama bin Laden, retrieved about
$5,000 sent by Marwan al Shehhi, a UAE citizen believed to be the
Sep 11 pilot of US Flight 175.
(WSJ, 11/2/01, p.A13)

2001 Sep 11, 8:45 a.m. American
Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying 92 people, crashed into
the North tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. It was enroute
from Boston to LA.
9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing
767 carrying 65 people, crashed into the South Tower of the WTC. It
was enroute from Boston to LA.
9:38 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing
757 carrying 64 people, crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
It was enroute from Washington DC to LA.
9:40 a.m. The FAA grounded all domestic flights
and ordered all airborne craft to land
immediately.
10:00 a.m. The South Tower of the WTC collapsed.
10:10 a.m. United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing
757 carrying 45 people, crashed southeast of Pittsburgh. The plane
had left Newark for SF but was believed to be directed by hijackers
to Camp David. Passengers appeared to have overcome the hijackers.
10:29 a.m. The North Tower of the WTC collapsed.
5:25 p.m. Building 7 of the WTC complex
collapsed. Four groups of terrorists used knives, hijacked 4
airplanes, and were suspected to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al
Qaeda organization and appeared to be a franchise operation.
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.A6,10,12)(WSJ, 9/12/01,
p.A1)(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A6)
2001 Sep 11, World leaders
expressed outrage at terrorist attacks in NYC and the Pentagon and
pledged solidarity with the US. In the West Bank town of Nablus,
some 3,000 people celebrated the attacks and chanted "God is great."
(SFC, 9/12/01, p.A14)
2001 Sep 11, The terrorist
attacks threatened to prompt a global recession. Thousands of people
were stranded and air cargo was paralyzed as the FAA grounded all US
flights.
(WSJ, 9/12/01, p.A1,3)

2001 Oct 6, Pres. Bush warned
Afghanistan's rulers that time is running out. The Taliban said it
would release 8 aid workers if the US "stops issuing threats" of
military action.
(SSFC, 10/7/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 6, US and British
intelligence identified Mohammed Atef, a former Egyptian policeman
and close aide to Osama bin Laden, as the key planner of the of the
Sep 11 attacks.
(SSFC, 10/7/01, p.A5)

2001 Oct 10, The 56-member
Organization of Islamic Conference, called by Iran, issued a
communique that sidestepped US action in Afghanistan: "The
conference rejected the targeting of any Islamic or Arab state under
the pretext of fighting terrorism."
(SFC, 10/11/01, p.A7)

2001 Nov 1, In Pakistan a
statement attributed to bin Laden accused the government of
supporting a Christian crusade and urged people to defend their
faith.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.A3)

2001 Nov 2, It was reported
that Ibrahim Bah, a Libyan-trained former Senegalese rebel, lived in
Burkina Faso and selected diamond dealers to handle deals in Liberia
between rebels from Sierra Leone and the al Qaeda network.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.A8)

2001 Nov 3, The Al-Jazeera TV
network broadcast a videotape from Osama bin Laden. He portrayed
that attacks against Afghanistan as a war against Islam and
denounced Arab leaders who cooperate with the UN for peace
negotiations saying that amounted to a renunciation of Islam.
(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A5,8)

2001 Nov 4, It was reported
that the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur cited bin Laden as
possibly possessing an arsenal of biochemical weapons. US
intelligence sources were cited that bin Laden purchased
laboratories from the former Yugoslavia, Ebola virus from former
Soviet stockpiles, botulism from the Czech Republic, anthrax from
North Korea and the assistance of chemists and biologists from the
Ukraine.
(SSFC, 11/4/01, p.A25)

2001 Nov 9, In Afghanistan
Northern Alliance forces claimed the capture of Mazar-e-Sharif.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 9, Jordan's King
Abdullah II said his country would consider sending troops to
Afghanistan to help the anti-terrorism coalition.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Nov 9, A Pakistani
newspaper published an interview with Osama bin Laden in which he
claimed to have chemical and nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 9, In Pakistan police
in Dera Ghazi Khan shot and killed 4 protesters during a strike
called by extremist religious parties.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A5)

2001 Nov 18, In Spain 8 men,
Soldiers of Allah, detained last week were reported to be members of
the al Qaeda network and to have played a role in the Sep 11
attacks.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A5)(SFC, 11/20/01, p.A7)

2001 Nov 19, It was reported
that 400 Afghan Taliban soldiers were killed while trying to defect
last week. Defectors continued to stream out of Kunduz as US war
planes continued to bomb Taliban positions.
(SFC, 11/19/01, p.A1)
2001 Nov 19, Egypt and Syria
confirmed the extradition of Rifai Ahmed Taha, a former aide to
Osama bin Laden, from Syria to Egypt.
(SFC, 11/20/01, p.A12)

2001 Nov 20, Abu Qatada (40), a
Muslim cleric living in London, was named in a Spanish indictment as
a pivotal figure in the al Qaeda network in Europe.
(SFC, 11/21/01, p.A11)

2001 Nov 28, It was reported
that Hezbollah's TV channel, al-Manar, was one of 4 Arabic language
cable stations available in Paraguay.
(WSJ, 11/28/01, p.A10)

2001 Nov, An al-Qaeda computer
was acquired by a Wall Street journalist in Kabul for $1,100
following US bombing. It was found to contain numerous memos of al
Qaeda activities including weapons programs.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A10)
2001 Nov, A treatise by Ayman
al Zawahri was smuggled out of Afghanistan. It was published in Dec
by an Arabic language newspaper in London.
(SFC, 1/1/02, p.A10)

2001 Dec 26, The Al Jazeera
Arab network broadcast a new video-taped statement from Osama bin
Laden that appeared to have been made in late Nov or early Dec. "Our
terrorism is benign." The al-Qaida leader condemned the United
States as a nation that committed crimes against millions of
Afghans.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A1)(AP, 12/25/02)

2001 Ansar al-Islam, blamed for
attacks in Iraq and supported by a network of members in Europe, was
founded in late 2001 in Kurdish part of northern Iraq by Mullah
Krekar, who had lived as refugee in Norway since 1991.
(AP, 1/8/05)

2002 Feb 1, It was reported
that Riduan Isamuddin (36), an Indonesian cleric known as Hambali,
was a Southeast Asian pointman for an al Qaeda network.
(WSJ, 2/1/02, p.A13)

2002 Feb 17, In Saudi Arabia a
man was sentenced to 6 years in prison and 4,750 lashes for having
sex with his wife's sister. The woman, who did not consent, was
sentenced to 6 months and 65 lashes.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A10)

2002 Feb 26, In Pakistan gunmen
killed 9 people and wounded over 10 others in an attack on a Shiite
mosque in Rawalpindi. The Sunni group Army of the Prophet's
Companions was believed responsible.
(SFC, 2/27/02, p.A9)

2002 Mar 8, The Holy Land
Foundation filed suit against the US Departments of Justice,
Treasury and State for violation of its civil rights and putting it
out of business as a suspected conduit for terrorist funds.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14)

2002 Mar 27, In Beirut the Arab
League opened a summit of its 22 member states.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A10)

2002 Mar 28, In Beirut the Arab
League committed to accepting Israel as a neighbor under conditions
that included the creation of an independent Palestinian state and
Israel's full withdrawal from war-won lands.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A15)(AP, 3/28/03)

2002 Apr 4, It was reported
that Saddam Hussein of Iraq had raised financial payments to the
relatives of suicide bombers from $10k to $25k.
(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A10)

2002 Apr 6, Arab League
ministers in emergency session denounced the Bush administration's
handling of the Middle East conflict. Some 15k Jordanians marched in
Ibrid. Over 20k marched in Paris and another 20k marched in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A7)

2002 cApr 12, Arab militant
groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood issued
a manifesto declaring that Arab governments had betrayed the
Palestinians and called holy war "the religious duty of every
Muslim."
(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A14)

2002 May 18, The pan-Arab
newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Abdel Azeem al-Muhajir, a senior
al Qaeda leader, that a strike against the US was imminent and that
the recent attack in Tunisia was its work.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A3)

2002 May 20, In Lebanon a car
bomb killed Jihad Jibril (38), head of local military operations for
the PFLP-GC. He was the son of Palestinian guerrilla leader Ahmed
Jibril who headed the Syrian-based Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine-General Command, founded in 1968.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A16)

2002 Jun 5, It was reported
that US intelligence believed that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed of Kuwait,
a key bin Laden lieutenant, was the mastermind of the Sep 11
terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A16)

2002 Jun 22, A bin Laden
spokesman said in audiotaped remarks from Qatar that Osama bin Laden
and his No. 2 man are both alive and well and their al-Qaida network
is ready to attack new U.S. targets.
(AP, 6/23/02)(SSFC, 6/23/02, p.A22)

2002 Jul 1, Jordan reported
that 11 people, including a Palestinian-Jordanian who fled the
American bombing on Osama bin Laden's stronghold in Afghanistan,
have been detained in connection with an alleged plot to attack
American targets.
(AP, 7/1/02)

2002 Aug 30, In the Netherlands
8 men were detained for providing financial and logistical services
to al Qaeda and for recruiting fighters.
(SFC, 9/3/02, p.A6)

2002 Sep 6, US officials
reported that the assets of Wa'el Hamza Julaidan, alleged al Qaeda
financier, had been frozen, and that he had been located in Saudi
Arabia.
(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A8)

2002 Sep 14, In Lackawanna, New
York, 5 men of Yemeni descent were charged with supporting foreign
terrorist organizations. They reportedly were schooled in the tools
of terror, including the use of suicide as a weapon, in camps run by
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. A 6th member of the cell was
arrested in Bahrain.
(AP, 9/15/02)(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)

2002 Sep 16, In Singapore
authorities announced the arrests of 21 men they identified as
members of an extremist Islamic organization. The men were initially
detained in August and linked to Riduan Isamuddin, an Indonesian
militant.
(SFC, 9/17/02, p.A12)(SFC, 9/20/02, p.A14)

2002 Sep 25, In Pakistan the
Islamic Martyrs Brigade (Lashkar Fedayan-e-Islami) held a secret
meeting in Peshawar and announced planned suicide attacks against
American troops in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 9/27/02, p.A18)

2002 Oct 22, It was reported
that special forces in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia had captured 15
Arab militants linked to al Qaeda.
(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A7)

2002 Oct 28, In Jordan an
assassin pumped eight shots into Laurence Foley (62), an employee of
the U.S. Agency for International Development, outside his home in
the first known killing of a Western envoy in Amman. 2 suspects were
arrested Dec 14. Abu Musab Zarqawi was suspected in the murder.
(AP, 10/28/02)(WSJ, 12/16/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/10/04,
p.A8)

2002 Nov 4, In northwest Yemen
6 al-Qaida suspects were killed when the car they were traveling in
blew up in an area where authorities believe the terror group is
active. Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, a suspected al-Qaida
leader, was among the dead.
(AP, 11/4/02)(AP, 11/5/02)

2002 Nov 12, An Arab TV station
broadcast an audiotape of Osama bin Laden, a voice that U.S.
counterterrorism officials said is probably authentic.
(AP, 11/13/02)

2002 Nov 21, Al-Qaida leader
Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the network's chief of operations in the
Persian Gulf, was reported to have been captured earlier in the
month.
(AP, 11/21/02)

2002 Dec 16, French counter
terrorism agents arrested 4 suspected Islamic militants in a Paris
suburb. The three Algerians and a Moroccan had an unidentified
liquid and an anti-contamination suit.
(AP, 12/17/02)

2003 Sep 23, A raid in Saudi
Arabia on Islamic militants left three suspects dead, including an
Sultan Jubran Sultan al-Qahtani (aka as Zubayr al-Rimi), an al-Qaida
figure wanted by the US.
(AP, 9/24/03)

2003 Sep 29, Irshad Manji (34),
Canadian author of the recently published: "The Trouble With Islam:
A Wake Up Call for Honesty and Change," was reported saying: "I
leave my fellow Muslims with a very basic question here: Will we
remain spiritually adolescent, caving to cultural pressures to
conform or will we finally mature to the full fledged citizens that
we are allowed to be in this part of the world?"
(AP, 9/29/03)(WSJ, 1/27/04, p.D8)

2004 May 11, A video, posted on
an al-Qaida-linked Web site, showed the beheading of Nick Berg, an
American civilian in Iraq. The execution was carried out to
avenge abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, aka Ahmad Fadhil al Khalayeh, was later identified as
the beheader. Nick Berg (26) was from West Chester, Pa.
(AP, 5/11/04)(SFC, 5/12/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/14/04,
p.A13)(ST, 5/14/04, p.A17)

2004 Jun 11, A new audiotape,
was broadcast on the Arab satellite station Al-Arabiya alleges that
a U.S. plan for reform in the Middle East is really a bid to replace
Arab leaders. It was believed to be from al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman
al-Zawahri.
(AP, 6/12/04)

2004 Sep 9, Ayman al-Zawahri
said in an al Qaeda videotape that the US will be ultimately
defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan.
(SFC, 9/10/04, p.A14)

2004 Sep 26, Ezzedin Sheikh
Khalil, a senior Hamas operative, was killed in a car bombing
outside his house in Damascus, the first such killing of a leader of
the Islamic militant group in Syria. The hit was claimed by Israeli
security officials.
(AP, 9/27/04)(Econ, 10/2/04, p.47)

2004 Oct 29, Osama bin Laden
appeared in a new video, dropped off at the Pakistan offices of
Al-Jazeera television. He claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11
attacks and claimed more violence is possible regardless of who wins
the US elections. Bin Laden vowed to bleed America to bankruptcy,
according to a full transcript of the unaired portions.
(AP, 10/30/04)(SFC, 10/30/04, p.A1)(AP, 11/2/04)

2004 Nov 2, It was reported
that some 3,000 Arab intellectuals had signed a petition calling for
an int’l. court to try Muslim clerics who encourage terrorism.
(SFC, 11/2/04, p.A3)

2005 Feb 7, Pakistan, as part
of a peace deal in south Waziristan, paid 4 tribal militants a total
of $842,000 so they could pay back money received from al Qaeda to
fight Pakistani troops.
(WSJ, 2/10/05, p.A10)

2005 Feb 21, The Arab League
chief said that Syria will "soon" take steps to withdraw its army
from Lebanese areas in accordance with a 1989 agreement. Tens of
thousands of opposition supporters shouted insults at Syria and
demanded the resignation of their pro-Syrian government in a Beirut
demonstration.
(AP, 2/21/05)

2005 Mar 3, An Arab League
meeting opened in Cairo. An Arab diplomat said Syria has told Arab
countries it needs to keep 3,000 troops and early-warning stations
inside Lebanon to maintain its security despite international
pressure for a full withdrawal.
(AP, 3/3/05)

2005 Mar 19, In Qatar a suicide
car bomb attack on a Doha theater killed one Briton. The next day
Qatar blamed an Egyptian for the attack.
(AP, 3/20/05)

2005 May 18, An Internet
audiotape was posted, purportedly by al-Qaida-in-Iraq leader Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, In which he justifies the deaths of fellow Muslims
in attacks against US troops and their Iraqi allies by saying that
jihad, or holy war, dwarfs all other concerns.
(AP, 5/18/05)

2005 Jun 1, Jerusalem city
engineer Uri Shetrit said 88 homes in an Arab neighborhood are
marked for demolition to make way for an archaeological park
documenting the disputed city's ancient Jewish origins.
(AP, 6/1/05)

2011 Jan, The Arab world
included over 350 million people.
(Econ, 1/22/11, p.15)

2011 May 15, Egyptian Foreign
Minister Nabil al-Araby was elected the new secretary-general of the
Arab League.
(SFC, 5/16/11, p.A2)

2011 May 19, President Barack
Obama laid out a new US strategy toward a skeptical Arab world,
offering fresh aid to promote democratic change as he seeks to shape
the outcome of popular uprisings threatening both friends and foes.
(Reuters, 5/19/11)

2013 Apr 29, Arab League
delegates in Washington, DC, proposed a revised peace plan based on
a 2002 peace initiative that would allow some Jewish settlements on
occupied land to remain part of Israel.
(Econ, 5/11/13, p.41)(http://tinyurl.com/p7qtvph)

2013 Jul 1, Gulf Arab states
called on the UN Security Council to meet urgently to prevent a
massacre in Homs, as pro-government forces in Syria try to wrest the
city from rebels fighting to topple President Assad.
(Reuters, 7/1/13)

2014 Nov 23, Israel's Cabinet
approved a contentious bill that officially defines Israel as the
nation-state of the Jewish people. The bill would delist Arabic as
an official language. On Nov 24 presentation of the bill before the
Knesset was delayed.
(AP, 11/23/14)(SFC, 11/25/14, p.A4)

2014 Andrew Hussey authored
“The French Intifada: The Long War Between France and Its Arabs."
(Econ, 2/22/14, p.83)